Study: ‘Sleep drunkenness’ is a thing you might have

New research suggests some Americans out there may suffer from a sleep-related disorder that can cause people to be confused and/or sometimes violent when they wake up.

Confusion arousal or “sleep drunkenness” affected 15 percent of 19,000 Americans that were surveyed in a study that was recently published in Neurology.

“Sleep drunkenness” causes some people to exhibit confusion or odd behavior when waking up, according to a statement from the American Academy of Neurology. Examples include affected people answering the phone instead of turning off their alarm or becoming suddenly violent during sleep.

“These episodes of confused awakening have not gotten much attention, but given that they occur at a high rate in the general population, more research should be done on when they occur and whether they can be treated,” the study’s author said in that statement.

Of those people who exhibited the disorder’s symptoms, researchers found that 37.4 percent had a mental disorder, including depression, sleep apnea or post-traumatic stress.